112 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
-Mr. Grarr. The habit in the West, however, at least with us in 
Tllinois, is to vary the crop with clover and small grain. I would like 
to have Mr. Woods answer the question I propounded a little while 
ago as to drying corn. ; 
Mr. Woops. Kiln-drying corn, drying by artificial heat, does have 
a great influence on the producing power. 
Mr. Bowrs. For the better? 
Mr. Woops. It very greatly increases the production, and apparently 
increases the vitality of the seed. Our experiments show that, and a 
number of the experiment stations have also demonstrated it, the IIli- 
nois station especially. The results all show that artificially dried corn 
for seed is very much superior. That one thing alone will increase 
the production. 
The Cuarrman. You mean subjected to heat? 
Mr. Woops. Kiln-dried. Just enough heat to cause a movement of 
air through the grain, as it is stored in the crib. 
Mr. Haucen. That would be very expensive, would it not? How 
is this artificial curing done? 
Mr. Woops. It is done in several ways. Some seedsmen go to a 
considerable expense. They pile the ears in so as to leave a consider- 
able space between the ears, and a current of warm air is run through 
them. 
Mr. Havecxrn. How long would that have to be kept up? 
Mr. Woops. Probably a week or ten days. 
The Cuarrman. Now, is that any better, really, than corn simply 
dried up in the garret? 
Mr. Woops. It produces much better when it is dried that way. 
If you had enough garret room to dry the corn in it would be all 
right. It is a little slower that way and not quite as certain. 
The Cuatrman. But you have all winter to do it in. 
Mr. Woops. The slow drying is not as good as the more rapid. 
Mr. Scorr. I have seen a statement that seed corn was injured by 
being frozen. 
Mr. Woops. Yes; but after it is dried it will not freeze. 
Mr. Scorr. You say it would not be injured? 
Mr. Woops. No; it would not freeze unless the cold were unusu- 
ally severe. 
Mr. Scorr. How much increase are you asking for this work? 
Mr. Woops. Five hundred dollars. 
Mr. Scorr. Do I understand that you are able to distribute 25,000 
bushels of seed this year? 
Mr. Gattoway. We did not distribute that, Mr. Scott. Those fig- 
ures were given by a distributing agency. We do not distribute any 
corn seed at all. 
Mr. Scorr. It was your statement that you had distributed 25,000 
bushels of seed. I thought if you had worked the matter up with the 
ie aes you have to that degree that probably you would not 
need the $500. 
Mr. Woops. We need pee $200 or $300 to grow the selections 
and carry on the operations at the Arlington Experimental Farm and 
other places. But most of the money is used in sending assistants into 
the corn sections, and picking out progressive growers and taking sec- 
tions of their farms and showing the ifference in production between 
the selected seed and the ordinary seed. 
